Studies on Marine Oil Spills and Their Ecological Damage

The sources of marine oil spills are mainly from accidents of marine oil tankers or freighters, marine oil-drilling platforms, marine oil pipelines, marine oilfields, terrestrial pollution, oil-bearing atmosphere, and offshore oil production equipment. It is concluded upon analysis that there are two main reasons for marine oil spills: (I) The motive for huge economic benefits of oil industry owners and oil shipping agents far surpasses their sense of ecological risks. (II) Marine ecological safety has not become the main concern of national security. Oil spills are disasters because humans spare no efforts to get economic benefits from oil. The present paper draws another conclusion that marine ecological damage caused by oil spills can be roughly divided into two categories: damage to marine resource value (direct value) and damage to marine ecosystem service value (indirect value). Marine oil spills cause damage to marine biological, fishery, seawater, tourism and mineral resources to various extents, which contributes to the lower quality and value of marine resources.

Problems of Marine Ecological and Environmental Compensations of Oil Spill in China

In recent years, the frequent occurrences of marine oil spills have already become one of the major reasons threatening the marine ecological safety of China. In the event of oil spill, oth-er than taking the necessary emergent measures aiming specifically at the damage to the marine ecology and environment, using legal means to assure that the damage liabilities are borne by the respon-sible persons to protect the national interests are also very neces-sary. This paper advances five recommendations regarding the development of a system for ecological legal compensations from the standpoint of the current status of legislation and execution of the laws on compensation of oil spill polluting marine ecosystem. These five recommendations include: determination of the status of juristic action in marine ecological and environmental compen-sations in accordance with the laws, determination of plaintiff of marine ecological and environmental compensations in accordance with the laws, determination of the four basic principles in the le-gal actions of marine ecological and environmental compensations in accordance with the laws, determination of assessment technical standard of marine ecological and environmental damages in ac-cordance with the laws, and determination of the scope of marine ecological and environmental compensations in accordance with the laws.

Transport and behavior of marine oil spill containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in mesocosm experiments

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs)are one of the most important groups in oil,and re sponsible for major toxic and/or carcinogenic impact on humans and wildlife.It is important to understand the behavior of PAHs in marine environment after an oil-spill incident.However,interaction between petroleum PAHs and microbial communities in a marine environment remains unclear.Therefore,a series of mesocosm experiments were conducted.in which water-accommodated fraction(WAF)of oil was generated to simulate an oil-spill scenario and to analyze the transport and behavior of marine oil spill containing PAHs with and without dispersants.Results indicate that the application of dispersant could increase the concentration of total PAHs in water column due mainly to significant increase in the concentration of highmolecular weight(HMW)PAHs at a lower removal rate.At the end of the 7-day experiment,significant amount of HMW PAHs were accumulated in sediment.In general,the application of dispersant did not increase the sediment uptake of PAHs but increased the PAHs concentration in water column.

Environmental Consequences of Oil Spills on Marine Habitats and the Mitigating Measures—The Niger Delta Perspective

The Niger Delta region has witnessed environmental impacts arising from oil production activities. Soil fertility in these areas and the entire marine habitat was investigated based on the re-occurring spill incidents in the area to establish the consequences of oil pollution on key performance indicators as well as the remedial actions for resuscitation. One of the bases of evaluation was on the fertility profile of the area impacted by oil spills as compared with the areas without oil spills influence. A suitable cost effective and environmentally friendly technique to handle the pollutions in the Niger Delta region can be found in systematic containment, recovery, clean up and restoration of the marine habitat to its initial capacity and status to be able to sustain life once again.

Marine oil spill contingency planning

According to the practice researching and formulating “The Oil Spill Contingency Plan of South Chinese Sea”, this paper analyses and discusses the structure, functions and main contents of marine oil spill contingency planning, programs the organizing and commanding system and emergency response system, and advances the planning and researching method to coordinate comprehensively and to design practically the detailed emergency response steps until to formulate the ease operating programs for the plan implementation(PPI) and the PPI to apply high techniques supporting emergency administrations and response.

Isolation and characterization of a high-efficiency marine diesel oil-degrading bacterium

In the recent 50 years,marine oil spills had resulted in severe environmental pollution problems worldwide.In this study,12 petroleum-degrading strains named MJ1 to MJ12,which can use diesel oil as the sole carbon source for growth,were isolated from the seawater in Jiaozhou Bay,China.Strain MJ4 has the highest diesel-degrading rate which is up to 26.54%in 5 days with the diesel oil concentration of 10 g/L.According to the BLAST research,16SrRNA sequence of MJ4 showed 99%similarity to Bacillus megaterium strain.Single-factor experiments and response surface methodology were carried out to optimize the environmental factors and their reciprocal action for affecting the diesel oil degradation process of Bacillus sp.MJ4.Results of single-factor experiments revealed that the highest degradation rate was obtained with temperature of 28°C,pH of 8.8,diesel oil concentration of 25 g/L,P/N ratio of 0.56,nitrogen and phosphorus dosage quantity of 0.35 g/L and 0.18 g/L,respectively.A nonlinear regression equation of diesel oil degradation rate and pH,temperature,P/N ratio was obtained.The model predicted the maximum degradation rate of 72.21%with temperature of 28°C,pH of 8.88,P/N ratio of 0.31,respectively.

Sensitive Resource and Traffic Density Risk Analysis of Marine Spill Accidents Using Automated Identification System Big Data

This study developed a new methodology for analyzing the risk level of marine spill accidents from two perspectives,namely,marine traffic density and sensitive resources.Through a case study conducted in Busan,South Korea,detailed procedures of the methodology were proposed and its scalability was confirmed.To analyze the risk from a more detailed and microscopic viewpoint,vessel routes as hazard sources were delineated on the basis of automated identification system(AIS)big data.The outliers and errors of AIS big data were removed using the density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise algorithm,and a marine traffic density map was evaluated by combining all of the gridded routes.Vulnerability of marine environment was identified on the basis of the sensitive resource map constructed by the Korea Coast Guard in a similar manner to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration environmental sensitivity index approach.In this study,aquaculture sites,water intake facilities of power plants,and beach/resort areas were selected as representative indicators for each category.The vulnerability values of neighboring cells decreased according to the Euclidean distance from the resource cells.Two resulting maps were aggregated to construct a final sensitive resource and traffic density(SRTD)risk analysis map of the Busan–Ulsan sea areas.We confirmed the effectiveness of SRTD risk analysis by comparing it with the actual marine spill accident records.Results show that all of the marine spill accidents in 2018 occurred within 2 km of high-risk cells(level 6 and above).Thus,if accident management and monitoring capabilities are concentrated on high-risk cells,which account for only 6.45%of the total study area,then it is expected that it will be possible to cope with most marine spill accidents effectively.

Field Experiments of Multi-Channel Oceanographic Fluorescence Lidar for Oil Spill and Chlorophyll-a Detection

A Multi-channel Oceanographic Fluorescence Lidar(MOFL), with a UV excitation at 355 nm and multiple receiving channels at typical wavelengths of fluorescence from oil spills and chlorophyll-a(Chl-a), has been developed using the Laser- induced Fluorescence(LIF) technique. The sketch of the MOFL system equipped with a compact multi-channel photomultiplier tube(MPMT) is introduced in the paper. The methods of differentiating the oil fluorescence from the background water fluorescence and evaluating the Chl-a concentration are described. Two field experiments were carried out to investigate the field performance of the system, i.e., an experiment in coastal areas for oil pollution detection and an experiment over the Yellow Sea for Chl-a monitoring. In the coastal experiment, several oil samples and other fluorescence substances were used to analyze the fluorescence spectral characteristics for oil identification, and to estimate the thickness of oil films at the water surface. The experiment shows that both the spectral shape of fluorescence induced from surface water and the intensity ratio of two channels(I495/I405) are essential to determine oil-spill occurrence. In the airborne experiment, MOFL was applied to measure relative Chl-a concentrations in the upper layer of the ocean. A comparison of relative Chl-a concentration measurements by MOFL and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) indicates that the two datasets are in good agreement. The results show that the MOFL system is capable of monitoring oil spills and Chl-a in the upper layer of ocean water.

A fast,edge-preserving,distance-regularized model with bilateral filtering for oil spill segmentation of SAR images

Marine oil spills are among the most significant sources of marine pollution.Synthetic aperture radar(SAR)has been used to improve oil spill observations because of its advantages in oil spill detection and identification.However,speckle noise,weak boundaries,and intensity inhomogeneity often exist in the oil spill regions of SAR imagery,which will seriously aff ect the accurate identification of oil spills.To enhance marine oil spill segmentation of SAR images,a fast,edge-preserving framework based on the distance-regularized level set evolution(DRLSE)model was proposed.Specifically,a bilateral filter penalty term is designed and incorporated into the DRLSE energy function(BF-DRLSE)to preserve the edges of oil spills,and an adaptive initial box boundary was selected for the DRLSE model to reduce the operation time complexity.Two sets of RadarSat-2 SAR data were used to test the proposed method.The experimental results indicate that the bilateral filtering scheme incorporated into the energy function during level set evolution improved the stability of level set evolution.Compared with other methods,the proposed improved BF-DRLSE algorithm displayed a higher overall segmentation accuracy(97.83%).In addition,using an appropriate initial box boundary for the DRLSE method accelerated the global search process,improved the accuracy of oil spill segmentation,and reduced computational time.Therefore,the results suggest that the proposed framework is eff ective and applicable for marine oil spill segmentation.

Radarsat observations and forecasting of oil slick trajectory movements

RADARSAT data have a potential role for coastal pollution monitoring. This study presents a new approach to detect and forecast oil slick trajectory movements. The oil slick trajectory movements is based on the tidal current effects and Fay's algorithm for oil slick spreading mechanisms. The oil spill trajectory model contains the integration between Doppler frequency shift model and Lagrangian model. Doppler frequency shift model implemented to simulate tidal current pattern from RADARSAT data while the Lagrangian model used to predict oil spill spreading pattern. The classical Fay's algorithm was implemented with the two models to simulate the oil spill trajectory movements.The study shows that the slick lengths are effected by tidal current V component with maximum velocity of 1.4 m/s. This indicates that oil slick trajectory path is moved towards the north direction. The oil slick parcels are accumulated along the coastline after 48 h. The analysis indicated that tidal current V components were the dominant forcing for oil slick spreading.

Deficiencies in Chinese law regarding compensation for damage to marine ecological resources arising from drilling platform oil spill and the ways of improvement:Starting off with the Penglai 19-3 oil spill accident

Based upon the accident of Penglai 19-3 off-shore oil drilling platform and the applicable laws and regulations in China,this paper analyses the deficiencies with respect to liable party,party entitled to claim,scope of compensation,means of settlement and compulsory liability insurance existing in the legal regime in China governing compensation for damage to marine ecological resources caused by oil spill from off-shore oil drilling platform. Suggestions and proposals are put forward to improve the legal regime.

海洋油膜偏振反射特性仿真与测试

为了海洋溢油的检测与识别,在偏振特性建模中综合考虑天空的偏振辐射、油膜表面的动态反射、接收探测器的姿态和性能,进行全数字仿真,开展外场动态水面的实测,进行油膜偏振半实物仿真,最后对海洋溢油进行了偏振测试与分析。试验结果表明:在区分油品方面,汽油和水的强度差值为29.33%,线偏振度差值为0.97%,二者结合可较好的分辨溢油。

紧缩极化SAR卷积神经网络溢油检测方法

为研究利用紧缩极化SAR代替全极化SAR进行海洋溢油检测的可行性,以及不同极化参数对溢油检测准确率的影响,本文利用卷积神经网络(CNN)的SAR溢油检测算法,对全极化模式及由全极化构造的紧缩极化SAR数据分别提取极化参数,研究其对于溢油分类准确率的影响;同时对比不同SAR数据预处理步骤对溢油检测精度的影响。研究结果表明,对于预处理步骤,线性拉伸方法能够有效提升溢油检测的准确率;在极化参数选择上,极化参数极化熵H在全极化与紧缩极化模式上都取得最高的分类准确率,分别为0.972和0.978。该研究结果证明了利用紧缩极化SAR代替全极化SAR进行溢油检测的可行性,在溢油检测方面具有较好的应用潜力。

溢油环境风险综合评价

文章基于危化品风险源、涉海敏感目标和船舶交通密度3种影响因素综合评价溢油环境风险状况。首先从空间分布和数量特征的视角,提取宁波市海域环境风险影响因子,建立海域环境风险评价方法和指标体系,然后依托GIS空间信息平台实现对宁波近岸海域环境风险空间布局的综合评价。结果表明,宁波慈溪市西北部和镇海区潜在的溢油环境风险极高,对石油泄漏的敏感程度也相对较高,进而表明该区域应列为重点风险管控对象;北仑区和奉化区东南部沿海区域和象山港东部海域,其溢油环境风险为一般水平,说明该区域应列为一般风险管控对象,其潜在的溢油环境风险属于中等敏感程度;而象山县东部及东南部、宁海县南部区域,该海域的潜在环境风险极低,其对溢油敏感程度较低。评价结果可为宁波市海洋环境风险防控及应急响应措施、海域空间资源利用配置等提供科学依据和有效借鉴。

基于区块链技术的海上溢油应急物资陆路预调度研究

快速有效地进行溢油事故应急物资预调度,对于保障港口储备库物资的供应,提升海上溢油事故应急能力具有重要意义。为了应对发生重大海上溢油事故时,港口区域储备库物资供应不足,需从陆上储备库调运物资的情况,研究了基于区块链技术的应急物资陆路预调度系统,提出了系统的总体架构和功能模型。同时,针对预调度系统中的应急物资调度方案决策模块,构建了应急物资调度模型,利用熵权-TOPSIS法和遗传算法进行求解,并通过案例分析证明了调度模型的有效性。研究结果能够优化应急物资陆运阶段的库存和调度管理,实现供需双方的自动匹配和陆路调配方案的快速制定,为应急物资预调度决策提供参考。

渤海典型油品短期风化过程的实验研究

针对海上溢油的短期风化过程,选取目前渤海区域油田主要生产的5种典型的油品进行了短期风化过程的实验分析,以探讨蒸发、乳化和沉潜作用对油品的具体影响。实验结果显示,油膜厚度、风速和温度显著影响蒸发过程,而乳化物的形成及其稳定性则与胶质和沥青质的含量紧密相关。蒸发过程主要引发油品密度的变化,乳化过程则对油品的密度和黏度均造成显著影响。特别值得注意的是,在高温区间内,温度对蒸发率的影响相对减弱,且船舶燃油和10号柴油的蒸发率对风速的变化表现出更高的敏感性。此外,低黏度油品的沉潜过程主要受小粒径悬浮颗粒物的影响,而大粒径颗粒物则更易促进高黏度油品的沉潜。基于上述实验数据,建立了经验公式,用以量化蒸发率、乳化率和沉潜率与环境因素及油品性质之间的关联,公式在描述油膜厚度、风速和温度对风化过程的影响时,拟合度R^(2)基本可以达到0.9。这些实验结果和经验公式为预测海上溢油行为提供了有力的工具,有助于制定更为精准的溢油应急处理策略。

海上溢油数值模型研究进展

中国是海洋大国,近年来,海上活动持续增多,发生海上溢油事故的风险随之加大,海上溢油污染事故一旦发生,如不得到及时控制,必将严重损害中国近海海洋环境。为了完善中国海上溢油应急反应体系,提高中国处理重大海上溢油事故的应急反应能力,开展了海上溢油污染应急技术研究。本文综述了溢油预测模型的发展过程以及相关的研究成果,包括:溢油扩展模型、溢油漂移模型、油粒子模型和溢油风化模型等。这为进一步开展溢油预测和溢油污染应急工作提供了理论依据和参考。

海上油气勘探开发中的溢油遥感监测技术——以渤海湾海域为例

海上溢油事故直接影响海洋环境和国际关系。卫星遥感监测技术具有大范围、多时相、快速、准确等特点,已经成为发达国家重要的海上溢油监测手段之一。以2006年3月渤海湾海域溢油事故为例,利用欧洲空间局的环境卫星(Envisat)合成孔径雷达系统(ASAR)图像数据,圈定了污染油膜;根据其影像特征和分布运移状态将污染油膜分为4期;根据油膜的后向散射特性差异,判断油膜的源头和尾部,1至4期油膜具有共同的指向,据此确定了污染源的位置,准确地计算了2006年3月23日海面油膜的污染面积(约为400km2)。此项工作表明,尽快建立海域环境监测和溢油应急遥感地理信息系统,是中国石油海上勘探的一项重要的技术保障手段。

油膜波谱特征分析与遥感监测溢油

分析了海洋溢油波谱特征的测试结果 ,提出遥感监测煤油、轻柴油、润滑油、重柴油和原油等最佳波段。并利用NOAA -AVHRR和TM资料 ,对几次海上溢油事故的油膜图象进行处理和解译 ,得到了较为清晰的溢油图象 ,并与事故现场调查结果吻合。

渤海海上溢油漂移扩散数值模拟研究

近几年渤海海上溢油突发事件频发,对海洋环境造成严重的污染。本文将业务化气象数值模型(Weather Research and Forecast model,WRF)、海流数值模型(Regional Ocean Model System,ROMS)的数值预报结果作为海洋环境驱动场,采用"油粒子"的海上溢油漂移扩散数值模拟方法,对在渤海发生的溢油扩散行为进行模拟预测。本文针对渤海溢油事件,设计敏感试验,研究不同风、流系数和网格分辨率对溢油扩散模拟结果的影响,获得适合于渤海的溢油数值模型参数,提高溢油漂移扩散预报的准确度,为海洋溢油应急处置和防灾减灾提供技术支持。